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The folds make them look "bigger" any time I see folds like on the left side, and somewhat on the right, I think BIG!!!

Spread is such a worthless metric anyway. Antler mass is what attracts cows..lol Do they curve in, curve out?.. A 55 can dwarf a 63-64..in mass and real size. I always thought simple weight or volume should be as simple as it is for determining number one.

Boone and Crocket should have interviewed more cows...they like mass. The "prefect set" of horns by Boone and Crocket standards is um, debatable...but I'm preaching to the quire here I suppose. Great hunt/moose/story...

Back to the cows. The moose are really skiddish in the area I hunt. Floating out though, with the horns of the moose I'd shot clearly visible(and putting out quite a lot of bull scent) this cow stood on the bank above me 20 feet away. She'd glance at me, then those horns, then me, then sniff.. I had to laugh... my eyes are up here dangit!!!

Thanks for playing along, everyone! I'm trying to find ideas on how we can educate ourselves, using this site to teach us how to better judge big game animals. Might save a few critters from getting shot.

Regarding the spread of that great bull, I've been looking at moose racks for nearly three decades, and just when I'm starting to have a little confidence in my estimating ability you go and do this! I was thinking it was high 60's, pushing 70. Looking at it again, the beam lengths (distance from head to beginning of palmation...at least as I'm using the word) are short relative to the palmation mass, which is impressive and suggestive of greater spread, and in hindsight should have been a clue to me to down-grade my estimate. Those moose!

Interestingly enough, my first guestimate (gut) was nearly correct at saying 65" or so. THEN I started the 10" outside of eye to outside of eye.....marking it on a piece of paper and holding it up to the screen. That screwed it all up as I kept coming up with over 70" in all but one pic where using that same measurement came up at around 65. Maybe I should start listening to my gut.....lol.

Oh and "anchorriver".....I'm with you. Mass is everything. One year I killed a 58" bull here on the Kenai and as far as mass goes, it dwarfed the 65"er that my buddy killed that same year up on the Yukon. Overall weight would be a good way of measuring trophy status for sure. Sure would be much simpler...

Sheep hunting...... the pain goes away, but the stupidity remains...!!!

Interestingly enough, my first guestimate (gut) was nearly correct at saying 65" or so. THEN I started the 10" outside of eye to outside of eye.....marking it on a piece of paper and holding it up to the screen. That screwed it all up as I kept coming up with over 70" in all but one pic where using that same measurement came up at around 65. Maybe I should start listening to my gut.....lol.

Oh and "anchorriver".....I'm with you. Mass is everything. One year I killed a 58" bull here on the Kenai and as far as mass goes, it dwarfed the 65"er that my buddy killed that same year up on the Yukon. Overall weight would be a good way of measuring trophy status for sure. Sure would be much simpler...

yea, unfortunately as I age I am getting wrapped up in this big bull thing. I used to happily harvest spike forks, and love every bite!!

Moose genetically seem obsessed with size. Cows love the large horned bulls(I've been told they even enter estrus early if a large bull is around). The species is doing well, so maybe the system works.

Boone and Crocket just took a stab in the dark one day, and wrote up some parameters, and m,any have obsessed over them for decades.

Seems two things are important in a "good" rack... can they attract cows, and can they win a fight? This determines who successfully breeds...though some of the sneaky opportunistic satellite bulls do well too..

Don't want to derail this thread.. really enjoying it... but the spread thing really is not enough. My 55 this year is pretty heavy, cups in..

Just got word from "my main man Ray" that the official score after the drying period ended up being 214 4/8. Just missed the all-time Boone and Crockett records book, but will make the "3 year" awards book. I asked him about the spread after drying, but I haven't heard yet.

Thanks to all who chimed in on this one. It was great hearing from all of you!

Steve relaxes in his tent during one of our many rainstorms. I took this shot as we were all heading off to bed for the night. I never seem to have trouble sleeping in the woods, and many nights I like to think of our camps as just one tiny speck of humanity in a vast wilderness. What a place we get to live!

He seemed to like it, and had no issues. He told me he would have preferred the Zephyr 2, by Alps Mountaineering. Approximately the same design, but far, far cheaper price-wise. There are some minor differences between the two tents, and for some the main deal-breaker is that the Alps tents are made in China. Still, the Alps Mountaineering Zephyr 2 retails for $219.99, and the Kuiu Mountain Star for $499.